Photography people...

[RSVX]

Thanks Di, I have Office 2k3, so I have the new stuff.

I am currently using a 3 day trial of Elements.

I will post some of my retouches later.

[ridered777]

Originally Posted by TE1221

That all depends on if you let me use your tools during the shop meet... hahah

If I can borrow her, you can use any tools you want at my house, AND I'll steal you any of Tom's that you want...

[RSVX]

OK, tried PP in Elements...

Before...


After...

[RSVX]

And again...

Before


After

[Hondasucks]

IF you want some good photo editing software, and don't feel like searching isohunt.com for a copy of Photoshop, there is a good free software package called "GIMP" for GNU IMage maniPulator, works pretty stinkin good, you can get it at http://www.gimp.org/

(They have versions for Windows, as well as Linux for those of you Linux gurus out there)

[RSVX]

I totally forgot about GiMP, thanks for the reminder.

[Tim]

I thought I would just revive an old thread with some of the stuff I've been doing.

[ridered777]

Nice, Tim. You're very talented. You could take some pictures of my Barcelona some time if you're looking for things to do...

We want more pictures of the hot neighbor!

[SVXRide]

buy a Mac and get busy

[RSVX]

Originally Posted by SVXRide

buy a Mac and get busy

You killed it! Looks at the blacks!

[Hocrest]

Originally Posted by RSVX

You killed it! Looks at the blacks!

And the washed out deck boards...

[SVXRide]

Come on, look at post 34...I just took the "after" pic there and tweaked it a bit You'd have to spend more than the 3 minutes I did to dodge the walk and keep the detail out in the water
-Bill
p.s. yes, I agree with the "blacks" comment!

[budbaer]

Hi Chris, I wasn't on the site for a while and I missed when this thread was started but I thought I would add my two cents........

I still use film, I haven't made the jump to light-speed yet and I guess I'm dragging my feet, but that's a little off topic. You have a wonderful machine on your hands, it will do things for you that I spent a decade learning how to do. Trust the camera to make the right decisions for exposure. That lens, although in a not-so rugged body, has some great glass. Your pictures will look sharper and more detailed than those from a much more expensive Canon, just because of Nikon's lens quality. When you buy additional lenses, don't get taken in by sales men trying to sell you off brand lenses like Sigma, Tokina, Quantary, ect... especially Quantary, they're just Sigma seconds. The advice about fill flash was the first thing that I thought when I saw your photos, but it's not hard to do with your camera.

Your Nikon has 3D matrix metering and balanced fill flash, I'll give you a quick description of what happens. In the P mode with the meter set to matrix and the flash popped up. It will take several meter readings from different regions of the viewfinder, then it will average them all together, finally it will take into account the distance between you and your subject to adjust the flash level. The result is a perfect balance between your subject and the background. A shot that takes 10 minutes to set up with a manual camera and flash, happens instantly on your camera, if you trust it and don't try to second guess it.

Sorry I ran on so long there, I just wanted to give you a little usable advice about the camera. I hope this helps you and gets you great outdoor portraits from now on.

[RSVX]

Originally Posted by budbaer

Hi Chris, I wasn't on the site for a while and I missed when this thread was started but I thought I would add my two cents........

I still use film, I haven't made the jump to light-speed yet and I guess I'm dragging my feet, but that's a little off topic. You have a wonderful machine on your hands, it will do things for you that I spent a decade learning how to do. Trust the camera to make the right decisions for exposure. That lens, although in a not-so rugged body, has some great glass. Your pictures will look sharper and more detailed than those from a much more expensive Canon, just because of Nikon's lens quality. When you buy additional lenses, don't get taken in by sales men trying to sell you off brand lenses like Sigma, Tokina, Quantary, ect... especially Quantary, they're just Sigma seconds. The advice about fill flash was the first thing that I thought when I saw your photos, but it's not hard to do with your camera.

Your Nikon has 3D matrix metering and balanced fill flash, I'll give you a quick description of what happens. In the P mode with the meter set to matrix and the flash popped up. It will take several meter readings from different regions of the viewfinder, then it will average them all together, finally it will take into account the distance between you and your subject to adjust the flash level. The result is a perfect balance between your subject and the background. A shot that takes 10 minutes to set up with a manual camera and flash, happens instantly on your camera, if you trust it and don't try to second guess it.

Sorry I ran on so long there, I just wanted to give you a little usable advice about the camera. I hope this helps you and gets you great outdoor portraits from now on.

I am always open for some advice. And this sounds good. I am still reading some books on general photography and such, but I think I have the basics down.

Thanks for the input, and welcome back.

[SVXRide]

Good comments on the metering of modern cameras. They've come a long-long way from the old center-weighted school The walkway shot has some of the toughest lighting that you'll see in a scene. Locking the exposure for your wife and son would have given you a pic something like the version I "tweaked" in ImageReady. Getting to know exactly what your camera can do, metering-wise, is a major step forward.
-Bill